After a long break since the Grant's Tomb Criterium CRCA Open Racing is officially back with Sunday's Zach Koop Memorial Criterium at Orchard Beach (#zachkoopmemorialcrit). Registration has closed and we once again have terrific turnout with 545 registrants including 22 racers in the free Kids Races. The M4 and M34 fields may be the largest of the day but we want to give particular thanks to all of our women registrants - we have sizeable fields across the W4/5, W 2/3/4 and W P/1/2/3 races.

If you are racing on Sunday make sure you check the final race instructions and read the technical guide on the race page. We are hoping the weather continues to improve as Sunday approaches but remember that rain or shine we will have pizza for racers starting at 11:30AM and we encourage everyone to hang out and watch some terrific racing on our spectator friendly venue. To help prepare for that spectating we have a quick look at the Road-Results.com predictions for Sunday...

Zach Koop Memorial Criterium Race Predictions

Elite Women

We could not be more excited for Sunday's Elite Women's Championship as the race is getting terrific turnout with 33 racers registered! Among them will be some of the fastest racers on the East Coast including a number of notable out of town racers. Road-Results.com may have their predicted podium but don't sleep on other contenders like Cassandra Maximenko and BrittLee Bowman or Taylor Kuyk-White who is returning to New York City after a strong showing at the Grant's Tomb Criterium earlier this year. If Grant's Tomb Criterium and recent editions of Orchard Beach are any indication chances are we will see a break go and potentially lap the field - the question is what teams will be represented? Road-Results.com has their podium prediction:

1. Colleen Gulick (Pickle Juice Pro Cycling Team)
2. Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom/Van Dessel)
3. Samantha Fox (Levine Law Group P/B Huseby.com)

Elite Men

For the Elite Men Orchard Beach often proves to be a breakaway friendly venue. With the potential for somewhat inclement weather on Sunday that breakaway potential increases even further. With that in mind the question for the Elite Men on Sunday is probably whether breakaway artists like Victor Gras, Baris Aytan and Constantin Schreiber sneak away? Or will things unexpectedly stay together for more sprint oriented racers like Scott Savory and Stalin Quiterio? The Road-Results.com podium prediction:

1. Cesar Marte (Verrazano Team Racing)
2. Scott Savory (CRCA/Jamison Capital - Cannondale)
3. Ismael Collado Acosta (CRCA/NYCC Racing p/b BGC Partners)